Mitt Romney On 47 Percent Remark: 'Actually, I Didn't Say That' About Personal Responsibility

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

Asked about the oft-cited quote that 47 percent of Americans can't be persuaded to take personal responsibility, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee said, "Actually, I didn't say that ...That's how it began to be perceived, and so I had to ultimately respond to the perception, because perception is reality."

At a May 2012 closed-to-the-press fundraiser in Florida, Romney said, "And so my job is not to worry about those people -- I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. What I have to do is convince the 5 to 10 percent in the center that are independents, that are thoughtful, that look at voting one way or the other depending upon in some cases emotion, whether they like the guy or not, what it looks like."

But Romney told Balz that the focus of his remarks was on swing voters, not on those who were already in President Barack Obama's camp. "It was saying, 'Look, the Democrats have 47 percent, we've got 45 percent, my job is to get the people in the middle, and I've got to get the people in the middle,'" he said. "They’ve got a bloc of voters, we've got a bloc of voters, I've got to get the ones in the middle. And I thought that that would be how it would be perceived -- as a candidate talking about the process of focusing on the people in the middle who can either vote Republican or Democrat."

Romney's argument that the remarks were taken out of context is a new defense for him. During the campaign, he said at first that they were "not elegantly stated" and then that they were "completely wrong."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/29/mitt-romney-47_n_3670600.html

[Archae]

1. It's on video, asshole!

You DID say that!

Face it, Romney would lie about his shoe size to a shoe salesman.

[JBoy]

3. My shoes are brown, my good man.

[Archae]

6. That's not a shoeshine guy.

It's a security guy.

[thelordofhell]

8. In Romney's eyes........we're all shoeshine guys

[Iggo]

28. Snap!

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

61. +1

[KansDem]

22. Assholes are people, my friend

They don't even try to hide it anymore...

[awoke_in_2003]

24. Yes, it is on video...

but the media NEVER brings video up to slap these people down.

[adirondacker]

32. If only we had a "free" press.nt

[tclambert]

51. "Who ya gonna believe, me, or your own lyin' eyes?"

If you really, truly BELIEVE in Mitt Romney, you won't have any trouble believing any of his lies.

And remember, he was almost President of the United States of America. Doesn't it send chills up and down your spine just thinking about that?

[bluesbassman]

2. You can polish a turd until it glows, but in the end it's still a turd.

Begone Mitt. Nobody likes you.

[AndyA]

4. Yeah, right, Miffy--it's on video, we heard what you said and we understand the context

Try again, loser. Go buy your wife another Cadillac, or annoy your neighbors with more work on one of your houses, or whatever--that's all you're really good for. America spoke, and America doesn't like you or what you stand for.

You buy companies, rip them apart, lay off employees, destroy lives, and send the profits from your dirty deeds overseas so you don't have to pay taxes on them. You are the poster idiot for everything that is wrong in America today.

Piss off.

[CanonRay]

15. You nailed it!

[tartan2]

5. Mitt the best thing you can do right now is to just shut the hell up and go away!!!

[Javaman]

7. Narcissists are like that. They never know when to stop digging.

It's readily apparent now, that this is something his micromanaging mind just can't let go of, as if he's OCD.

I soon believe he will be ranting about strawberry's and playing with ball bearings.

[bemildred]

9. His words mean nothing, see? nt

[okwmember]

10. Talk about not taking personal responsibility.

We all got the context from the recording asshole.

[Marie Marie]

11. Talk about clueless.

Mitt, you've learned nothing, you'll never get it so just go enjoy your 1% lifestyle and spare the rest of us your arrogance.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. Funny, it's recorded.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. This is what happens when one is surrounded by people impressed with your money.

[rurallib]

14. he really has a low opinion of Americans if he thinks

he can lie about what is easily available on the internet and we will believe him.
Even Queen Ann won't believe that one.

[John2]

45. A lot of

people still voted for him though. He is really a reflection of this country. We are divided.

[Raine1967]

16. Whatever. keep digging dude...

You are not relevant and you are still a privileged asshole. From the WaPo piece:

“Even up until the day before he made the announcement, he was looking for excuses to get out of it. If there had been someone who he thought would have made a better president than he, he would gladly have stepped aside.”

This man is not capable of being honest -- he cannot even be honest with himself. He's insecure.

Romney confirmed to me that at one point in the spring of 2011, he was so pessimistic about his chances that he called Tagg early one morning to say he thought he would not run after all. He was being hammered by conservatives, in large part over the idea that the health-care reforms he passed as governor of Massachusetts would hurt Republicans’s ability to attack the president for the controversial “Obamacare” law that had fueled GOP gains in 2010.

HE does have one thing -- an ego the size of a golden calf. I'm glad he done. Let him sleep with his money --

[Yavin4]

17. In comic books, people like Mitt become super villans

So overcome with rage and anger at losing the election, he would build a giant bunker some where, hire henchmen, and then threaten the world with some of kind devastating bomb or something.

[IrishAyes]

18. MUTT'S A LIAR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In revenge, not only did I tell every Republican I could find so they'd know exactly what their faux-christian hero really thought of them, but I also wrote 'MUTT' in big red letters on one of those rubber chickens and hung it upside down off my big campaign sign. My furkid Molly Maguire had always ignored that $20 toy before, but when she saw it hanging there she grabbed it and started running around the yard. It squawled like a stuck pig, which thrilled her.

So from then on when I brought her indoors, I'd hang the Chicken Mutt back on the sign. Even after she decapitated it.

Well, I thought it was funny!

[niyad]

59. I am sooooo glad I wasn't drinking anything while reading this. you would have owed me a keyboard.

[IrishAyes]

67. I should've taken videos

Imagine the sight of that big yellow headless chicken with MUTT written across it's belly in big red letters, hanging by its feet from my 4'x5' painted wooden Democrat sign. And Molly Maguire was never so joyous as when she ran up and down the front yard in front of God and everybody, wagging her tail and constantly chomping down so Mutt would wail. Sorry to repeat myself[/b , but the joy has never faded for me either.

Since I made the Democrat sign to last many years, I guess in 2016 I'll have to buy another of those $20 rubber chickens and name it whatever. Or I might have to splurge on two, since the JRT Brigid has thrown in with us. We're a baaaaaad influence.

[reflection]

19. He truly does make his own reality up as he goes along.

And that's the part that terrified me the most about him. He reminded me of a guy I knew growing up that would believe his own lies. I watched this guy tell me about an experience he "had" that he'd forgotten I'd told him, weaving little details in and out to make it his own. When I told him "that happened to me, not you" the stupid vacuous grin didn't even flicker. He said "No, it happened to me" and changed the subject.

[AtheistCrusader]

20. Damage control? Hints that this fucker will be back for the next election?

[Orsino]

21. No. This is Mitt's ego defending itself.

The Right never loved Mitt like they loved them some Bushies, and is remembered as the one who fucked up rather than as a wronged hero who needs a re-match.

[yellowcanine]

23. Actually you did Mitt. Go away now.

[tanyev]

25. Good luck finding anyone outside your family who cares, Mitt.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

26. Has any modern nominee ever behaved so patheticly after losing the White House?

[adirondacker]

33. Just think if he worked at the Post Office!

[Arkana]

27. Nice try, Mitt. We have it on tape.

[Kingofalldems]

29. What a great story Mitt.

[sakabatou]

30. Can't take the damage back

[Major Hogwash]

31. Actually, I've never seen the video of Romney not actually saying that.

And the world goes round and round, and where it stops, maybe Romney will get the hell off of it!!!

Fuckin' moron!!!

[tavernier]

34. I believe you, Mitt!

I'm sure I could get out and convince lots of people to see it your way but my car isn't very dependable. If I had one of those new Jaguars, I could really spread the word...

[grantcart]

35. Think about it. This is really sweet.

It means that the loss still bothers him.

He realizes that he never had a chance because of his own big mouth.

I hope it bugs him every day the rest of his life.

[DeeDeeNY]

40. But the video misquoted him!!

[Solly Mack]

36. lololol

[uppityperson]

39. You never give up, do you? At least complete sentences are a bonus.

[Ptah]

38. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.

[Paladin]

41. Congrats, Mr. Romney: You just provided the basis for another "Newsroom" episode.

Helpful hint: It'll be painful viewing for you.

Paging Mr. Sorkin.....

[DFW]

42. It's the Gingrich-style approach

"So let me say on the record, any ad which quotes what I said on Sunday is a falsehood."

Apparently he also now lets Romney say it, too.

Whup, whup, whup Newt Gingrich style.

[BREMPRO]

43. lol!! still a delusional tool...

[B Stieg]

44. "The Cayman Islands..."

(sung to the tune of the old commercial for...the Cayman Islands)

(i.e. where Mitt's money lives)

[marble falls]

46. A whiney voice bleating out of the trashheap of forgotten history.

[bucolic_frolic]

47. He says he didn't say that? And didn't mean it?

It's beginning to sound like he didn't inhale.

Or maybe he is inhaling!

[UCmeNdc]

48. Mitt Romney just proved he is liar ......... Again!

Mitt Romney=Liar

[Orsino]

49. The real story, of course...

...is the unknown number of replicant importers who hit the trail saying things that Mitt himself wouldn't.

Twist ending: Mitt himself is a replicant, too.

[deutsey]

50. "Not only was what I did not say not elegantly stated, it was completely wrong."

[olddots]

52. Take yourself and the whole cult with you of the side of the earth.

[unblock]

53. doubling down on the dismissive: "i wasn't focusing on those i was making a dismissive remark about"

yes, rmoney, that's the thing about being dismissive. of course you weren't focusing on the 47 percent while you were being dismissive of them.

that's kinda the thing about being dismissive of something, you don't focus on it.

so, you're really just doubling down on the dismissive here.

[louslobbs]

54. Romney would piss on your leg and tell you that it was raining. I wouldn't believe this

pathological liar if his tongue came notarized.
Lou

[CTyankee]

55. Stop it. No, really, stop it, Mitt.

Nobody wants to hear what you have to say anymore. Nobody cares.

Nobody.

[The Wizard]

56. He was full of shit yesterday

He's full of shit today, and he'll be full of shit tomorrow. It's in his DNA, he's a Republican.

[wordpix]

57. Just like, "I'm not a tax evader and I don't really use tax havens to hide my million$" Liar

What more can you say except it's grand he LOST

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

62. Reminds me of this brilliant ad from the Obama campaign...

[CTyankee]

68. thanks! I had forgotten how much I loved that ad!

what a killer it was...

[wordpix]

69. we need more like that ad, it's brilliant

[47of74]

58. Keep fucking that chicken Mittens

[niyad]

60. thanks for posting this, I reallllly needed the laughs today.

mittens, dahhhhling, you (and most pukes, apparently) seem to forget one teeeeensie, tinsie widdle fact. once something is on tape, or in print, or on the net, IT NEVER GOES AWAY. you can deny all you want, but we all heard that whole thing, we understood the context and exactly what you were saying.

now, please, do yourself and us a HUGE favour and just shut up. that goes for your whole lying, entitled, useless family.

[Lugnut]

63. Bull. Shit.

Now just go away, Mitch.

[trusty elf]

64. Cereal Lier

[IMG][/IMG]

[tanyev]

65. "I only take 47% responsibility for that remark."

[jimlup]

66. Well he certainly failed at his job by his own admission

He didn't get those "5 to 10% in the middle" as the election statistics clearly demonstrate:

Presidential
Candidate Vice Presidential
Candidate Political
Party Popular Vote Electoral Vote
Barack H. Obama Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Democratic 65,917,257 51.01% 332 61.7%
Willard Mitt Romney Paul Ryan Republican 60,932,235 47.16% 206 38.3%
Gary Johnson James P. Gray Libertarian 1,275,893 0.99% 0 0.0%
Jill Stein Cheri Honkala Green 469,016 0.36% 0 0.0%

http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php